Goodbye, Zaha. (1950-2016)

Zaha Hadid was so much more than a "female architect." She was a fearless trailblazer, a creator of beauty, and a role model for us all. May she rest well.

In the store: Dine, shine and wish-they-were-mine

As a result of another out-of-state picking trip, more new pieces have been added to our inventory this week. My SIL found a great dining set, a shiny little Lucite and glass side table and another pair of Ib Kofod-Larsen chairs.

The dining set looks somewhat like Broyhill Saga, but it's not. We haven't started trying to identify it yet, so if you know the designer/maker, please share.

The pair of Kofod-Larsen chairs we sold a few months ago were so beautiful after we had them refinished and reupholstered that we can't wait to start looking for fabric for these two. We haven't decided yet whether to have them done in the same dark finish as the other ones or go a little lighter. That will probably depend on our fabric selection. I'm sure, just like last time, I'll be sad to see these go. I love the design, and I wish I had a place for them in my house.

Mid-century dining set

Lucite and glass side table

Ib Kofod-Larsen chairs

Paul McCobb

Paul McCobb (1917-1969) was a popular American designer who became a household name in the Fifties. He started his career as a designer of retail displays, but he soon turned to the design of furniture, wallpaper, fabric, glassware and ceramics, lighting, radios, televisions, console stereos and even typewriters. His well-made, moderately priced home furnishings became an immediate success, earning him the nickname “America’s decorator."

McCobb was born in Boston, where he received training in fine art at Vesper George School of Art. Although he had no formal training in design, he established his own company, Paul McCobb Design Associates, in 1945. Working with the distributor B. G. Mesberg*, he introduced the Planner Group in 1950, which was followed by the Directional, Predictor Linear and Perimeter lines, all produced by Winchendon Furniture and marketed by McCobb himself.

McCobb’s pieces were not only economical but practical and functional as well, designed to meet the needs of young middle-class families who were furnishing their first homes. For example, he created “living walls,” which were movable room dividers and storage systems. These allowed maximum flexibility and efficient use of limited space in small post-war housing.

McCobb won the MoMA Good Design Award five times between 1950 and 1955, as well as the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Contribution to Better Design award in 1959.

He was design consultant for many leading corporations, including Singer, Alcoa, Goodyear, Columbia Records and Remington Rand. His work has been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Merchandise Mart in Chicago.

From lostcityarts.com, September 9, 2010, and r20thcentury.com, September 17, 2010

*According to the Directional, Inc. web site, B. G. "Bud" Mesberg founded that company in 1950 and worked with Paul McCobb, among other well-known designers of the time. The company was operated by the Mesberg family until 1994. Lost City Arts spells the name "Mosberg," and R Gallery spells it "Mersburg," but I believe my spelling to be correct.

(While researching the information for this post, I found a blog by Paul McCobb's daughter, Melissa. You might be interested in reading it: http://melissamccobbhubbell.typepad.com/meliscellanea/

Planner Group credenza, 1950
fubiz.com

Contempri "Eclipse" china by Jackson
modish.net

Bar cart
artnet.com

CBS-Columbia Model 205C2, 1954
plan59.com

From my mix 'n' match collection
 of Paul McCobb Jackson China restaurantware

Roulette tile for Pomona
pinterest.com - Raisa Sandstrom

Starspray tile for Pomona
pinterest.com - Raisa Sandstrom

Patterns tile for Pomona
pinterest.com - Raisa Sandstrom

Brass table by Calvin Furniture
reformgallery.1stdibs.com

Sofa by Custom Craft
reformgallery.1stdibs.com

Planner Group desk and chair
1stdibs.com

Update:

This post originally identified the following room divider as a Paul McCobb design, but it is not.

Room divider by Mark J. Furst and Robert Fellner for Furnett
detnk.com

Pioneers and prophets of modern design

While most people think "modern" means 1950 to the mid-1960s, the movement actually started two decades earlier.  Bauhaus visionaries like Marcel Breuer and Mies Van Der Rohe, as well as French designers Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) and Charlotte Perriand were designing chairs in the 1920s that both predicted and influenced the departure from the stuffy conservatism of Victoriana.

In the 1930s Gilbert Rohde created tubular steel chairs for Herman Miller and Troy, and Alvar Aalto began to work with molded plywood. The 1938 sling chair designed by Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy became the classic Fifties "butterfly" design.  The rounded corners of Russel Wright's furniture for Conant Ball and his belief in mass-produced home decor changed the way furniture was made available to consumers.

The trio of chairs designed in 1940 by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen won the MoMA Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition and reshaped our attitudes about the form and function of furniture.

After World War II, these chairs formed the vanguard of the mid-century modern movement and have been refined and repeated, copied and counterfeited, and faithfully revered ever since.

Wassily chair by Marcel Breuer, 1925
alginretro.com

Barcelona chair by Mies Van Der Rohe, 1927
knoll.com

Basculant "pony" chair by LeCorbusier and Charlotte Perriand, 1928
sillabarcelona.com

Molded plywood chair by Alvar Aalto, 1934
metmuseum.com

Tubular steel chair for Troy by Gilbert Rohde, 1930s
1stDibs.com

Russel Wright for Conant Ball
icollector.com

Lounge chair by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, 1940
moma.org

Lucienne Day

Lucienne Day (1917-2010) was a British textile designer whose vibrant and innovative work changed the industry.

Her designs, which were used for fabric, carpet, wallpaper and ceramics, were inspired by the modern art of Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miró and Alexander Calder, as well as by geometric forms and nature. Her Calyx pattern was launched at the 1951 Festival of Britain and helped launch her career. It was given the International Design Award of the American Institute of Decorators.

Day is known for her ability to combine the traditional British love of nature...as seen in the works of William Morris or John Ruskin, for example...and express that in abstract design.

When interest in 20th century design reemerged in the 1990s, she and her husband of almost 70 years Robin Day, the famed furniture designer, became mentors to young designers.

In Jonathan Glancey's farewell to Lucienne Day at the time of her death in January of this year, he described the woman and her work:

Lucienne had a wonderful way of looking severe, and then breaking into a warm smile and happy conversation. I suppose her best fabrics – and that's pretty much all of them – are a bit like that: disciplined, intelligent, diligently researched, but also warm, playful, colourful and delightful too.

From theguardian.com and classictextiles.com

Calyx
dioramarama.com

Dandelion
patchworkunderground.com

Helix
designmuseum.com

Apollo
dwell.com

Herb Anthony
artessen.com

Pronunciation Guide

Fabulous 50s fabrics

I love MCM textiles, vintage or reproduction.  I love its texture, its vibrant colors, its pizzazz and personality.  It has presence.  I mean, seriously, what does microfiber really say to you?

Give me a piece of barkcloth or a yard of nubby tweed any day.  A bolt of boucle’ in the right color could make me weak in the knees.  So is it any wonder that I pore over web sites and order swatches by the stack?    

If you’re looking for barkcloth in the $20-25/yard range, J and O Fabrics has a great selection...in theory anyway.  By that I mean they have tons listed, but they’re always out of stock in most patterns.  For tiki lovers, Barkcloth Hawaii has a huge assortment of tropical florals and a fair selection of atomic prints as well.

When it comes to the motherlode of mid-century fabrics in the $112-135 range, however…and I mean quality upholstery in patterns by designers like Arne Jacobsen, Alexander Girard, Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Josef Hoffmann and Verner Panton…J and O has a large selection in stock.

Nevertheless, when I’m feeling lucky, I invariably check out the amazing selection at winterbeachmodern.com.  You never know what they’re going to have, but you always know the fabric is going to be gorgeous and the prices are going to be exciting.  For instance, the same Eames “Small Dot” fabric that you just saw elsewhere for over $100 a yard may only be $26.99 a yard, although it might only be available in the yellow colorway.  They get new fabric in regularly though, so the selection changes often, and you get the added bonus of "the thrill of the bargain-hunt."  Not only that, but they are really nice to do business with!  I highly recommend making a habit of checking their site before you look elsewhere.

"China Shop" by George Nelson
from eamesfabric.com

"Mandarin"
by Josef Hoffman
from eamesfabric.com  

 "Small Dot"
by Charles and Ray Eames
from winterbeachmodern.com

"Trapez" by Arne Jacobsen
at J and O Fabrics

l to r: "Circles" by Charles and Ray Eames;
"Geometri" by Verner Panton;
 "Design 9297" by Josef Hoffmann
all from J and O Fabrics 

"Mambo" barkcloth pillows I made for my study/guest room

Boomerang print barkcloth pillow

All that glitters is not Towle

A couple of years ago, I was browsing through a Macy's ad, and a set of stainless steel flatware caught my eye. It was a style called Opus by Henckels.  What attracted me were the modern lines and the simplicity of the design. I bought a set and love it more now than the first time I saw it.

Recently I was doing some research on John Van Koert, the designer of my Drexel Profile dining room furniture, and I saw a picture of the Contour sterling flatware he designed for Towle in 1951.  I was surprised to see how much his design inspired the design of some of the pieces of the Opus flatware.  Though not identical, it definitely has the same feel, with its narrow, upturned handle. While the knives are the most dissimilar pieces, the dinner forks, spoons, and meat forks are very much alike. Now I know why it looks like it was made to go with my furniture.

I found a set of Contour flatware on eBay today for $2995, but I don't plan to raid the savings account to buy it. I'll just stick with my Opus for now. However, a Contour set has definitely made it to my "If I Ever Find It Cheap" list.

Contour in sterling silver by John Van Koert for Towle

My Henckels Opus stainless steel flatware

Russel Wright

Russel Wright (1904-1976) is considered by some to be the Martha Stewart of the mid-century era.  His affordable designs could be found in almost every middle-class home. Always ahead of other designers, he was the first to design a portable radio, a radio/record player console, sectional upholstered furniture, stove-to-table cookware and dishes and spun aluminum accessories. His wife Mary (1904-1952) helped with marketing, coming up with the term "blonde" for light maple furniture, suggesting to her husband that he sign his pieces, and co-authoring Guide to Easier Living with him in 1950.

Wright was the first to use rattan, hemp rope or wood in informal serving pieces, and his blonde wood furniture became a model for modern design.  He also pioneered the use of aluminum blinds, stainless steel flatware and Melamine in informal tableware.

His Steubenville American Modern china, followed by his Iroquois Casual china, have remained so popular that Oneida manufactured a Russel Wright reissue a few years ago.

I never tire of talking about Russel Wright.  I collect Iroquois Casual china in ripe apricot and avocado yellow, and I can get really passionate discussing it. (I know, I know...I really need to get out more.) I'd love to hear from you about your favorite Wright designs, about things you already have and about things on your wish list.

From The Man Who Was Martha Stewart Back Before She Was by Grace Glueck and Collector's Encyclopedia of Russel Wright by Ann Kerr

Rattan tea cart with spun aluminum canisters
antiquehelper.com

Conant Ball lounge chair
treadwaygallery.com

Conant Ball sectional sofa
1stdibs.com

American Modern china
ephemerascenti.com

Iroquois Casual china
antiquehelper.com

Spun aluminum floor lamp
decorumsf.1stdibs.com

An eBay find...not marked.

I got this spun aluminum lamp on eBay for next to nothing.  I did my homework and found out that some of the early Russel Wright lamps were not marked.  Do you know anything about this lamp? Could it be an early Wright?

John Van Koert

Since I featured my Drexel Profile dining furniture in a recent post, I thought I'd devote some time to the designer, John Van Koert. He is not as well-known as some MCM designers, but he played an integral role in establishing the modern aesthetic.

Van Koert (1912-1998) designed silverware and furniture that helped introduce modernist shapes.  Born in Manitoba, Canada, he later moved to Milwaukee, where he studied at the University of Wisconsin to be a painter and sculptor and taught design in the art department. After World War II, he settled in New York as a jewelry designer for Harry Winston and later branched out into industrial design.

His flatware designs for Towle were well known in the 50s.  One of them, "Contour," as sleek Miro-like design, was chosen to represent modernism in "Knife, Fork and Spoon," a 1951 traveling exhibition on the history of eating implements organized by the Walter Art Center of Minneapolis.

In 1954, he was exhibition director of "Design in Scandinavia," a show that traveled for three years to venues around the country and helped introduce Scandinavian modern design to Americans.

Van Koert's furniture designs for Drexel were presented in model rooms in department stores like Abraham & Straus, Macy's and Bloomingdale's.  A 1956 installation of walnut furniture with rounded edges, silver-finished hardware and chartreuse upholstery known as the Profile collection, was shown against purple, silver, and electric-blue walls.

Van Koert was an early advocate of the built-in furniture popular in the 1950s with modernist architects and designers.  Predicting a time when people would treat furniture like kitchen cabinetry, he said in an interview in 1958: "We shouldn't have to move our furniture when we more. After all, you can't get sentimentally attached to a $200 chair."

From nytimes.com

Contour beverage set for Towle
modernsilver.com

Contour flatware for Towle
liveauctioneers.com

Drexel ceramic side table
1stdibs.com

Drexel Profile night stands
danishmodernla.com

Profile desk and chair
vandm.com

My Drexel Profile set

Pronunciation Guide